


M U G I W A R A

by Emika



Category: One Piece
Genre: Canon Compliant, Established Relationship, F/F, F/M, Family, Friendship, M/M, Nakama, Nakamaship
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-21
Updated: 2019-02-25
Packaged: 2019-04-05 09:41:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 3,009
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14041437
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emika/pseuds/Emika
Summary: A collection of Straw Hat shorts of them simply existing—being friends, being nakama, and in some cases, being in love.Or, the one in which the Straw Hats love one another and I have no impulse control because of it.





	1. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nami leads Zoro through an unfamiliar town.

Nami, dripping off Zoro's arm, led him through the thin backstreets of an old, complacent island.

"Most people take stores like these for granted," she said. "Some even believe that just because the items are cheaper, that they're of lesser quality than their more expensive counterparts. But, that's not always the case."

He hummed. Nami wasn't deterred. Zoro was, by nature, a quiet man. If he truly hadn't wanted to spend the afternoon with her, he would have slipped away by now. Not that  he ever would. The Sunny, although their heart and soul, a moving home for the Straw Hats to zero in on, left few opportunities for them to spend one on one time with each other.

Nami savoured moments like these. As did Zoro.

"I find a lot of my cartography tools from places like these," she continued, and gestured to the bright storefronts flanking them. "I wonder if we can find some decent polish for your swords."

"Is that why you dragged me out here?" he asked, his deep, rolling voice pleasant.

"I overheard you mentioning something to Sanji-kun," she said.

"Ah." He reached for her hand, tucked into the crease of his elbow, and brought her fingers to his lips. There, he left a soft, thankful kiss to her skin. "Don't bother with a new inkwell, today. I may or may not have one at home for you."

Nami beamed. His smile was crooked but no less warm.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sanji, Zoro and Robin enjoy a lazy morning.

Zoro, dressed down in slacks and nothing else, shuffled into the galley a bit after dawn.

Robin, perched at the counter island with a thick book, tilted her head towards him as he braced a hand on the back of her stool and leant forward; brushing a soft, familial kiss against the fine lines of her cheek.

"Good morning," she said, lips quirking up.

"Mornin'." Zoro rounded the counter island and slid up behind Sanji, bare arms winding around the blond's tapered waist. With his face pressed into his shoulder, Zoro hummed a languid, "Cook."

"Marimo." Sanji reached behind him with his free hand, the other stirring a soup, and passed his thin fingers through Zoro's coarse hair. His nose wrinkled. "You need a haircut."

Zoro snorted. "Look who's talkin'."

Sanji dimmed the heat and turned around, lean arms sliding up and over Zoro's thick shoulders. "At least I suit long hair. You'll look like an overgrown weed."

"You pickin' a fight?" Zoro wondered in his throaty tenor.

Then, before Sanji could answer, he closed the narrow distance between them and slated a lazy kiss over the blond's mouth. Sanji eased into it, into him, fair lashes fluttering shut as a tongue traced the seam of his lips. God, this man.

Behind them, Robin cleared her throat.

Sanji sighed, disappointed, against Zoro's mouth but retreated all the same. "I wouldn't want to scar the lady."

Zoro, the asshole, dragged him closer and nipped his bottom lip. Sanji set a long hand against the swordsman's chest, blue eye pointed. "I wouldn't want to scar Chopper. He'll be up soon."

Zoro backed off and Sanji bit back a smile. The idiot had been a sucker for Chopper since Alabasta. Not that he blamed him much.

"Is that the one about the city in the World's Core?" Zoro's voice floated through the galley, directed to Robin, as Sanji returned to his stovetop. "Agrath. Agortha. Wait. No. Aga—"

"Agartha," Robin corrected. "And, yes. Have you read it?"

"Awhile ago, yeah." He pulled out a stool beside her, the legs skimming the waxed floorboards with a smooth hiss. "Perona almost talked my bloody ear off about it. So, I read the damned thing just to see why she liked it so much."

"And, did you?" Robin asked.

"I'm not much of a reader—" Sanji snorted and Zoro glared so hard at the back of his head, Robin wondered if shaggy, blond hair would recede into a bald spot. "—but—" the swordsman stressed, silver eyes returning to Robin "—I enjoyed it, yeah."

"It's fascinating," she agreed. "I've always appreciated art but I've never been much good at it."

"You can't be any worse than Luffy." Zoro's smile was crooked. "You should count it as a blessing that you weren't around to see his attempt at our jolly roger." He shuddered. "Thank God for Usopp."

"And, poor Laboon. He has that monstrosity painted on his head." Sanji barked a quiet laugh. "What was that moron thinking? He should have let Usopp paint him."

Zoro shook his head. "When is he ever thinking? He's Luffy."

Between them, Robin managed a small, barely-there smile. "Poor art skills aside, I wish Luffy had found me earlier."

Sometimes, Zoro wished that too. But—

"He found you—us—when the time was right." There were few things Zoro took more pride in than his position as first mate. "Besides, I'm just glad that he found you at all."

Her smile warmed and, if Robin was the kind of woman to blush, she would have.

"Amen to that," Sanji hollered.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Usopp helps Sanji cook.

"Is this fine?" Usopp asked, stepping back from the benchtop.

He had one of Sanji's knives in his hand and a board in front of him; fruits divided into a motley of colourful chunks.

Sanji, crouched in front of the oven, craned his head over the benchtop and grinned. "Perfect! Now, just mix them in a bowl with the syrup we prepared earlier."

"Cool."

Usopp crossed the kitchen and worked the lock with squared, deft fingers. The door cranked open and he pulled a bowl embossed in gold from the shelf—from one of Sanji's finer sets. He smiled as he worked.

"I like cooking," he admitted, stirring the melon chunks into the syrup first. "I was just never good at it."

"You're brilliant. All you needed was the right teacher." Sanji pushed to his feet, standing some inches taller than Usopp. But, sometimes, he seemed worlds bigger—an older brother with all the wisdom Usopp would ever need.

(Usopp had seen Luffy with Ace, and then years later with Sabo, and knew that he looked the same when he stood with Sanji; in awe and adoring).

"Yeah," he agreed, round lips stretching into a wide grin, one reminiscent of their boy-captain. "My teacher is the best."


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Robin considers her relationship with Franky.

Robin, for a long time, had determined that relationships of the romantic sense were better suited to other women.

She used men and women as a means to an end; as stepping stones to reach the next poneglyph. But, her life was different now, better, set with friends who were her whole world.

She wondered if romance was something she could have after all.

Still.

Had Robin entertained a relationship before her life as a Straw Hat, she imagined an elegant man; mannered, bookish and polite.

But, she found Franky instead.

Vulgar and loud, Franky was a far cry from the man in her imagination.

But.

(There was always a but when it came to him).

He had a gentleness to him too, an unapologetic kindness that was rare on a sea as unforgiving as the Grand Line. Robin had first seen it at Enies Lobby, his conviction sinking into her; then again, at Thriller Bark, when Nami had steered the Mini Merry across a still ocean. He hadn't done it out of self-interest but because it would make someone else smile.

"You're quieter than usual," he hummed, voice hoarse with sleep.

"I'm thinking," she said, propping herself up on her elbows to stare into his eyes; drinking in his languid warmth.

"You're always thinking," he reminded her, gently curving his huge, bulking arm around her tinier frame.

The bed below them, one hired at a motel some blocks from the Sunny, creaked as he readjusted and settled.

"What are you thinking about?" he asked as her fingers traced the bolts under his cheeks.

"You. Me." She followed the slope of his brow. "Us."

His mouth, still swollen from her kisses, tilted up. "Yeah?" he prompted, large hand dipping lower and closing around the ample swell of her ass. "Naughty things?"

Her grin was crooked as she slammed a hand down on his nose. His hair sprang out, startling him more than her.

"Not cool," he grumbled, going through his hair's different modes until it returned to his plain buzz-cut.

She giggled.

His head dropped back down to his pillow as she mapped his chest with careful fingers, unashamed of the scars that striped his torso. "What about us?" He wondered, his heartbeat a pleasant flutter against his fingertips.

"We're very different," she said, pinning him down with a hooded stare.

He nodded, large, oblong hand fanning out and palming her bare hip. "It'd be a bit boring if we were the same."

"You think?" Robin dropped a kiss to his heartbeat, a song more beautiful than even their beloved Brook's melodies.

"I know." He smiled. Her heart swooped in her chest. "I need to be challenged, Nico Robin, and you challenge me; more than anyone has had the gall to challenge me. I would have never been satisfied with a woman any less than you."

"Oh? You've thought of other woman?" she teased, knowing better.

Still, his answer was warm. And, almost brutally honest.

"Of course not," Franky snorted. "I've loved you since that day at Enies Lobby—when you told Luffy and the world that you wanted to live."

Her tears were immediate. God, this ridiculous, insane man.

"I love you too," she whimpered, catching Franky in a hard, bruising kiss.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Straw Hats dock at an island that's too familiar for Nami.

The Straw Hats docked at some desert island some time after Wano; the landscape a sweeping stretch of bronze and gold.

Nami's chest throbbed. The bannered stalls, the limestone towers, and arid heat were all too much for her. And so, she decided to stay with Sunny, unable to face another desert without the friend who was more pirate than princess.

"That's very unlike you, Nami-san," Brook noted, who wouldn't know better; who had never loved Vivi nor been loved by Vivi in the way some of the others had been—like she had been.

"I'm just tired, that's all," she lied, smiling tightly. "I stayed up late last night penning a new map."

"Ah, of course." Brook sipped his tea. "Then, I bid you adieu, Nami-san. Please, take care."

"Stay out of trouble," she hazarded in return, and sighed, long-suffering, when he simply bounced off the side of the ship. "You stupid—"

"Is there anything you need?" Robin asked, holding Chopper's little hoof.

She seemed a bit more standoffish than usual, but Nami couldn't blame her. Robin's involvement in the Alabasta fiasco had made for terse waters, at first. And, of course, she would be astute enough to notice Nami's longing.

"I'm fine, thank you." Then, as an after thought, added, "I don't blame you."

Franky, standing some paces behind them, frowned. His lips parted, like he might make a comment, but Robin's head snapped in his direction. She pinned him with a hard look. His teeth clicked shut.

"If I find some of that quality paper you like, I'll buy some," he said instead, thumping down the gangplank with a half-hearted wave.

Robin waited until he was gone, before she turned back to Nami. Her smile was kind. "Princess Vivi may have stayed in Alabasta because of obligation and a love for her home, but she is still a Straw Hat. Which means, she cannot resist the sea forever."

Nami's mouth curled up. "No. I suppose she can't."


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Brook is caught in Luffy's orbit

If the Thousand Sunny was to be his solar system, and Brook a bare-boned planet—then Luffy was, without a shadow of a doubt, the sun. Caught in his orbit, he and the other Straw Hats circled him—greedily soaking in his light and his _warmth_.

He was a summer's afternoon spent on a beach—an arid night out on the open ocean. In comparison, Brook was a snow-capped mountain—battered by blizzards and boxed in by swollen cloudbank. Because of that, he'd once believed it had been a miracle that Luffy's shine had reached him at all. But, his boy-captain had shed some light on that too.

"Mountains are taller than everything," Luffy had snorted. "So, the way I see it, they stand closest to the sun."

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this is far shorter than the rest, but I'm still recovering from a serious bout of writer's block and this is the best I could manage.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zoro, Sanji and Nami reunite with an old friend

It was a wonder Usopp hadn't noticed her first—with her lurid, blue hair and his keen eyes, she should have stood out to him starkly.

But, Usopp was distracted, and Sanji's Observation was better.

So, when he sensed someone familiar on the edges of the town's teeming heart, Sanji dropped the round, fat peach in his hand. The furred fruit thumped into Zoro's waiting palm, his long fingers folding around its pliant flesh. He didn't speak and, instead, swept the marketplace with a single eye.

"Vivi," Sanji whispered, his voice hoarse between them. "I sense her—"

Zoro's Observation exploded outwards, skimming the edges of the marketplace. In his haste, he almost missed her, but as he scanned the area a second time, there she was. His breath stalled in his throat.

"We need to find Nami," Sanji said, groceries forgotten as he all but sprinted through the marketplace—Zoro half a step behind him.

She stood at a bannered stall farther down the road, harassing a white-faced shopkeeper over a stack of bound cartography paper. Her posture was relaxed, insouciant even, as she bent over the wooden counter. In another life, Sanji might've admired her slender lines, drawn to her ample curves like a moth to a flame.

But, he had another woman on his mind.

"Nami!" he called out, attracting her attention.

Facing him, Nami spared him a flat look. "What have you two idiots done now?" she asked, her cheeks dimpling with a frown.

"You'll never believe—"

Zoro's low voice was drowned out by a strangled cry, and together, the Straw Hats swung around. Vivi burst out of the crowd. Dressed in pale traveller's robes, she was as beautiful as the day they'd lost her.

Nami's face burned with tears. "Oh my—"

Vivi propelled into her, knocking them both to the ground. "I want to come home," she croaked against Nami's cheek, her thin arms looped around her neck.

Nami laughed, the sound watery as she clung to her slender shoulders. "You'll always have a home with us."

"It's about damn time too," Zoro huffed, but his eye was warm. "We need more sense aboard our ship."

Settling against Zoro's side as Nami and Vivi clung to one another, Sanji laughed. He hadn't felt this full, this complete, since Luffy's beaming  _it's delicious_  had rang through him.

After all, only a true Straw Hat was insane enough to call their jolly roger home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Unlike the others, this one will have a second part!


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vivi doubts herself.

Sat outside a small cafe with Robin and Chopper, his cheeks sticky with ice cream, Luffy had to be the brightest thing for miles.

And suddenly, her smile unhinged off her face, and fell.

"I don't know if I can do this," Vivi said, staring at him with huge, watery eyes. "What if he doesn't want me anymore?"

Nami's sharp eyes pinned her still. "You're joking, right? This is Luffy."

Vivi swallowed thickly. "But, what can I possibly offer him?"

"Your intelligence," Sanji said gently, taking her hand. "Your wisdom—"

"But, he has Robin for that." She blinked through her tears, her voice wobbling. "Just like he has a chef, a navigator, a sniper, a shipwright—"

Zoro's voice rolled between them, low and rumbling like thunder. "That's enough."

Vivi's spine prickled.

Sometimes, it was hard to remember his role amongst the Straw Hats, but right now, bowed beneath his pointed stare, it was even harder to forget. Facing her was not the man she'd laughed with a thousand times, or conversed with a thousand more. This man was the unmistakable first mate of the Straw Hat Pirates.

Even Nami and Sanji, quieter now, couldn't dispute that.

"You're worth more than some role aboard our ship," he said, his eyes softening a fraction. "The Vivi I know should remember that."

Memories, old and discoloured with age, crept across her mind—a long stretch of desert, a bruising punch, and a declaration that had moved her tears. She sucked in a sharp breath. Zoro was right.

Stepping forward, he settled a hand on her bare shoulders, his calloused skin a familiar weight. "He's waited two entire years for you to come home. It'd be rude to make him wait any longer."

Crying in earnest now, Vivi nodded. "Yeah, you're right!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't actually mean to split this little arc into three parts, but now I have. Oops.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vivi reunites with Luffy

He was as she remembered him—thin, a little scrawny, and brighter than any star.

"Luffy," she croaked, then frowned.

He needn't someone docile, nor mild. He needed someone tall, someone fierce—to match the men and women he called nakama already. Straightening her spine, Vivi stepped closer with deliberate purpose, knowing that to be a Straw Hat, she'd have to promise him her dreams and everything else inbetween.

It wasn't much of a choice, in the end.

"Captain," she said instead, clearer than before, the word tasting right on her tongue.

And, drawn to her voice like a magnet, Luffy lifted his head.

His warm, brown eyes were molten gold in the summer shine, and when he spoke, his voice bridged the two and half years that'd separated them in a single instant. "You're home now."

Chasing that declaration, Vivi settled at his feet; her forehead pressed to his bony knee. It didn't matter that she was a princess, that her bloodline was Alabastan royalty, because Monkey D. Luffy would be king soon. And, she'd move mountains to make that happen.

"I'm home," she agreed, lifting her chin to meet his eyes.

"Then, stand." Luffy's hand landed on her elbow, pulling her upwards.

Gingerly, Vivi rose, her heart stalled in her throat.

"You're a Straw Hat now," he said, a grin stretching across that rubbery face of his. "And Straw Hats don't bow. Not even to me."

Laughing, the tightness in her chest, one she hadn't even realised had been there until now, loosened. "Yes, captain."

**Author's Note:**

> These shorts all exist in the same universe, with established relationships, and occur in the ambiguous time period after Whole Cake Island


End file.
